Scarlet Begonias
by ghostfacekiller39
Summary: MattxAdrian fanfic detailing Matt's rivalry with Juan Corrida, Adrian and Celeste's complex relationship, all in a high school setting. A mostly lovey-dovey piece, but watch for the ending. DISCLAIMER: Capcom owns these characters, not me.
1. Eggheads and Introductions

CHAPTER 1

**AUTHOR'S NOTE: I'm going to be listening heavily to Sublime while writing this story, in case you couldn't gather from the title :P Anyway, dudes, here's your first choice, Scarlet Begonias. It's going in a Adrian/Matt/Adrian/Matt alternation, and be expecting 20,000 to 30,000 words. **

** Happy reading, dudes! **

** -ghostfacekiller39**

Adrian Andrews woke up to a gray, foggy morning; she thought it strange about how her alarm clock didn't wake her up, but her cell phone's ringtone (It was her favorite song, Poker Face by Lady Gaga.) She reached over while still laying in bed and pulled it off of the charger. It was laying on the end table by the lamp.

She slid the touch screen over to see a text from Celeste. It read;

_Spotty! Where are you!? :( _

_Dammit! _Adrian thought to herself as she jumped out of bed to throw on her clothes. She rushed into the bathroom and put her rubberbands on her braces and applied her acne cream; Celeste had nicknamed her spotty when they were 14 because of her extreme acne problem; it had since cleared up, but she was still in the condition to be called "Spotty."

She grabbed a piece of toast and ran outside and hopped on her bike; she hoped not to wake her parents. They were still asleep in the small beachfront abode that held the Andrews family. It had 3 bedrooms, but the room that once belonged to her sister was empty.

She pedaled quickly across the beachfront; the sun was coming up over the ocean, causing a pallete of colors to shine over the water, creating a stunning scene Adrian knew she was missing because of her haste and focus onto getting to Celeste at school.

She heard a car speeding up behind her; a boy's voice yelled out in a Spanish accent "Hey, Spotty! Get a car!" She felt an egg breaking against the back of her head. She stopped as they sped around the corner to LB High, shooting her the finger. She turned red with embarrassment; she thought about yelling out a swear at them, but it was too late and they were already parked.

She rolled up to the bike rack and locked it in place, feeling the egg yolk she hadn't had time to wipe off yet running down the back of her neck. _Juan! That...that JERK! _She involuntarily scowled. She heard a voice calling her name from the outdoor eating area nearby the bike rack. She turned to see Celeste in her cheerleader's uniform waving her over towards them. She held her books against her chest and ran towards her to find her seated by her airhead friends and Matt, her sophomore boyfriend, (they were both Juniors) wearing his Purple and Gold letterman's jacket; he had become the Quarterback for the football team at just the age of 16. The girls all loved him, but Adrian didn't; he was just a glidiot to her. (A word she invented just for Celeste's boyfriends; a combination of glamerous and idiot.)

The sun had yet to fully rise as she set her books down beside Celeste. The head cheerleader snapped her fingers; "Spotty! Where have you been?" She thrust her math homework towards her. "Math homework!" She leaned in close to Adrian to where she could feel her icy breath hitting the side of her cheek. She growled "And Spotty, I am not sleeping with that old, disgusting perv with the small, wrinkly dick just to pass this semester like I did last semester, do you understand?" Adrian noticed that Celeste had spoken loud enough for Matt to hear her confess to sleeping with Mr. Payne, and had a disgusted look on his face.

Adrian turned sheepish; "Y-yes...I'm sorry. I-I understand..." Celeste pulled back after Adrian took her homework for her; _Ughh. Why does she have to be like this? And more importantly, why does she have to have Math class first period? _She saw Celeste rubbing up against Matt as he held her close with the throwing arm the school had dubbed "The Right Arm of Long Beach High."

She had just started crunching the numbers when a surfer-esque voice spoke up to her. "Yo, Adrian, what's that on the back of your neck?" _Matt...jerk!_ Celeste reached over and dabbed her finger on the back of Adrian's neck. "Egg yolk!? EGG YOLK?" Celeste and the rest of the cheerleaders and their boyfriends burst out in laughter at the small, meek girl's humiliation. _Matt! Ugghhh! I hate him, so, so much! Nrghh!_

Unfortunately, she didn't see the most popular guy in school wasn't laughing at her; instead, he turned red in embarrassment and sheepishly mumbled "...sorry, Adrian."


	2. Words, Weapons, and Oldbags

CHAPTER 2

The bell rang; Matt had felt terrible for embarrassing Celeste's friend; he actually found her to be an alright chick. He walked into the theatre to find Juan Corrida there waiting.

He had decided to take first period theatre as a tribute to his mom; she had killed herself after the Soap Opera she was cast in killed off her character and fired her. His dad was unemployed at the time, so she was the only source of income, and..._I really don't know what was going through her mind...it was..._

He had forgotten about Juan standing in front of due to the fact he was wandering off in thought. He directly yelled in Matt's face. "Matt Engarde!" Matt found the much shorter Juan not only to be annoying, but a bully as well. Matt just sarcastically held his hands in the air, as if he were intimidated, and replied with a tone to match. "Juan Corrida."

Juan turned red with anger; he had a letterman's jacket as well, but he had only been able to letter in Theatre. He had been relegated to JV sports until his Junior year. "Don't take that tone with me, gringo!" He did a knife slashing motion with his thumb on his neck; "The Fall play is coming up! And you know who the lead character is?" Matt just let out a sigh. "Who's the lead character, Juan?" Matt couldn't help but think to himself _Protagonist...why is he even in this class? He's not any good at acting!_

"Don Quixote! That role is as good as mine!" Juan said with a ton of pride. Matt just sighed. "Look, Juan, we can stand here and keep playing Power Rangers with our words, but the tardy bell is about to ring, and I don't want to miss it when they hand out scripts for the auditions. So later, dude."

Juan was flaring at the nostrils, and Matt left him like that and walked away with a sigh. _Why does he hate me so much? And furthermore, why are his insults so corny?_

He walked to the seating area and saw the other actors and stage hands sitting in the chairs; he took a seat by Caleb and Chris Grey, two twins who didn't despise him. The other actors all wrote him off and treated him with contempt, and his best guess as to why is that they thought he always got the lead role because he was the Quarterback of the football team, not because of talent.

"Yo! Matt-dude! What's up?" He gave Caleb a high-five; he was the more laid back of the two twins; wearing baggy pants and t-shirts for bands like Sublime and Bob Marley & the Wailers everyday. He was a rebel and hated his dad, a local surgeon. His brother, Chris, wore dress shirts, and suspenders, and was really good friends with Adrian. "Greetings, Matt." Both twins had light brown hair and dark blue eyes, with sort of tannish skin to match. "What's up, Chris?"

"Nothing." He pushed his glasses back up to his eyes with his middle finger. "Just waiting for them to hand out the scripts for the Fall Play. I think I'm going to try out for the lead role this time!" His eyes sort of sparkled as he said this. Matt just smiled at him; "That's good, man. Good luck." Chris grew serious all of a sudden. "Are you going to try out for the lead role again, Matt?"

Matt didn't want to crush his feelings, but he couldn't lie, either; "Yeah, Chris...like I always do." The meek, small boy deflated. "Oh..."

Matt hit his arm. "But don't give up, man! You still have a shot!" He picked his head back up, pushing his glasses back up to his eyes with his middle finger once more. "Hey Matt...maybe you could stop by and play D&D with me after tryouts today with me and Adrian." Matt laughed warmly; "Dude, I have to take a rain check. You know I have Football practice and then work."

Chris smiled; "Ok, but I'm going to let you know that you're starting to run out of rain checks." He laughed and Matt just smiled; "Alright, dude." He felt bad for always rejecting Chris' invitations, but he was too busy, and Dungeons and Dragons didn't really sound like his cup of tea, either...

Ms. Oldbag walked out from behind the curtains with a stack of scripts. She was an old, bitter lady who had just recently taken the job as a theatre teacher here at LB High; she had some expierience in showbiz, but the rest of the faculty couldn't stand her, and the same went for her students. Rumors were circulating that she was going to be fired at the end of the year, and everyone who took her class were crossing their fingers that it were true.

She walked over to Juan first; "Oh Juuuaaannnn!" She greeted him in a sing-songy voice. Juan jumped back as Oldbag blushed; "Neeegghhhggg!" She whispered at her favorite pupil, in almost a snake-like hissing. "You know I always have to do what's best for the play...but I'm rooting for you to beat out Engarde for the lead role, ok, sweetums?" Juan was leaning so far back in his chair that he was basically in the person sitting behind him's lap. She blew him a kiss as she walked away, passing the scripts from person to person. When she got to Matt, she turned up her nose.

"What's up, Ms. Oldbag?" Matt said with a grin.

She snapped at him, her eyes white and her breathing heavy. "How dare you adress me like that, you little punk! Why, the proper why to greet authority this time of day is 'Good Morning, Madame' not 'What's up!?' Why, little Juany over there could teach you some lessons on manners! Back in my day..."

Matt sighed as he tuned out the old bag to look at his script; he always greeted her like that just to piss her off. He heard Ms. Oldbag yell at him.

"Are you listening to me, punk!?" He just responded by looking up at his script and saying "What? I'm sorry, I didn't hear you."

Ms. Oldbag just stormed off in a fit of rage, stomping her feet on the theatre steps that led up and down the rows of seats they were forced to sit in due to a lack of desks. Caleb reached over Chris to give Matt a high five; "Nice one, Matt-dude!" Matt returned the high five with a friendly grin and went back to reading the script.

He started wondering about Adrian, and if she still had that egg running down the back of her neck.


	3. The Good or the Bad?

CHAPTER 3

Adrian was sitting in Mr. Payne's 2nd period Math class; he was a wrinkly old man, looked to be about 62, and he always found a way to bore everyone even further than necessary by finding a way to relate everything to how his dad hated him because his 2 younger brothers became Prosecutors and he became a high school Math teacher.

"Well class...you see, the Pythagorean Theorem is used to find the length of the Hypotenuse...just like how I'm the shorter side, and Winston and Gaspen are the two longer sides here, see?" The class let out a groan in unison.

Mr. Payne started shaking his fist vehemently; "Now listen here! You don't know what it's like living in the shadows of two such great minds!" A kid raised his hand; "I heard your brothers sucked at prosecuting though!" The old man was flattered; "Aww, now, now, flattery gets you everywhere, Leo." Mr. Payne stood in the light, showing his age through the wrinkles on his skin; it looked as if he were made of leather. _And Celeste slept with this man... _Adrian stifled back a snicker.

Time drudged on through the class period; it was as interesting as watching a 100 hour long documentary about sand; and Adrian just sat back and watched the second hand on the clock hand tick. After a few minutes, the clock broke, much to her dismay.

Mr. Payne babbled on and was finally cut off by the bell; Adrian grabbed her books quickly and left the classroom at the speed of sound; it was her free period.

She made her way to the outdoor lunchroom to meet up with Celeste for a quick run-through of everything she needed to do and then was ready to meet up with Chris. She didn't have any intimate feelings for him; they were best friends, neither of whom were into the whole dating scene.

Celeste Inpax sit with Matt's letterman jacket draped around her shoulders at the corner table in the outdoor lunchroom; they sat there as there was a tall brick wall behind them that allowed the other Letterman and Cheerleaders to sit with out taking attention away from where Celeste preferred to sit at at the table.

She was the head cheerleader, yes, and she was very attractive; but she was very unpopular outside her clique. VERY. And Adrian didn't blame anyone who hated her; she just stuck around to try and get the Celeste she knew when she was 7 back.

She approached Celeste and Matt; "H-Hey, Celeste." Celeste turned her attention towards the meek blond girl; "Oh, hey Spotty. Just who I wanted to see. I have some Physics work I'm struggling with; that horse-faced girl I usually get the answers off of in that class just didn't want to help me." Celeste laughed, it sounded pretty to everyone else, but to Adrian it sounded more like a witch's cackle; "She's going to regret that. Just watch."

Adrian was stunned. "But Celeste...I thought I was the only one who did your homework for you!" She felt as if she were in a relationship and just found out she was being cheated on. Celeste sighed. "Please, people just want to help me. You can't say no to a pretty face like this." She batted her eyelashes with a promiscuous smirk.

Adrian was caught off guard when Matt spoke up; "Celeste! What the hell! I really wonder why I even-" Celeste put her index finger up to his mouth and shushed him; "Mattie...I strongly advise you not to finish that sentence." She thrust her physics paper towards Adrian. "Now, Spotty, I trust you can get me a good grade on this?" Adrian held her head down. "Yes, you can, Celeste." She trudged off towards the table were Chris sat with her head held down towards the ground, overhearing Celeste make a joke about her complexion as she walked off.

The table were Chris sat was full of...different people. Mindy always had headphones in at all times; she was always the first to be seated at the table. She had short hair that was dyed both pink and black and always wore all black; she never talked to anyone at all. Somehow, her and Caleb, Chris' twin, yet his polar opposite, were dating each other. Caleb was seated beside her. Heather was seated beside Adrian; she was the "Horse-Faced" girl Celeste referred to, but Adrian didn't know that. Adrian herself, and then Chris.

She took her seat beside Chris. "Hey, Chris!" She said with a smile. He was too into what he was reading to look up. "Shh, Adrian. I'm reading my parts for the play tryouts today. I'm trying to beat Matt and Juan for the lead role." She furrowed her brow; "Well, I hope you crush both of them. I hate those jerks!"

Chris looked up; "I'll agree, Juan is a jerk. But if you talk to Matt, he's really cool! You really should try to get to know him..." Adrian just let out a "Hmph. You're only saying that because he's the star of the football team and he gets any girl he wants." Chris shook his head. "No, no. That's not it at all, Adrian! I hate football players, you know that! But Matt's a genuinely nice guy!" Adrian could see this conversation was going nowhere fast; _I'll just let him think that Matt Engarde is his friend until he sees what a jerk that man is!_

She sat down and began doing Celeste's physics homework, working on it until the bell rang out for the end of her free period, and she got up and made her way with Chris; they let out a shudder together. _P.E. Class...nrrgghh. _

They tried talking about the usefulness of P.E., and they couldn't find one good reason they had to take that class.

Adrian felt lucky; the girls had Coach Workman as their P.E. coach, and she did not care one bit as to what the girls did. The boys, however, had Coach Fletcher, who would push them to their limits on the other half of the Gym.

She sat in a corner and watched Chris try to climb a rope; he was sort of scrawny and lacked in upper body strength. She just looked down at Celeste's work, feeling sorry for the poor boy. She heard the Gym Doors open (they made a very loud sound when they did this) and she saw a tall, handsome man in a Purple and Gold letterman's jacket reading _Engarde _in script lettering on the back walk up to Chris at the rope.

He began yelling at him! _Poor Chris! No wonder he's getting up that rope so quick now! He's scared! That jerk! _After Chris had made his ascent and descent from the rope, he and Matt exchanged high-fives, with Matt congratulating him. _Huh?_ Adrian was confused; _He was just screaming at him, and now he's Chris' best friend? Two-face. _The bell rang once more, and Adrian started her way to 4th period, wondering as to if Matt Engarde was really a good guy like Chris said or a bad guy like she thought him to be.


	4. The Engarde Household: Fish on the wall

CHAPTER 4

Matt peeked around the curtain separating the stage from the backstage area; Juan was first on the list, which he didn't find very surprising. He was butchering his lines, and the only one of the judges (all the teachers of the fine arts department) who seemed pleased with his audition was Ms. Oldbag. Matt smiled at the thought _Is he reciting the script or trying to yodel one of Mozart's symphonies?_

He pulled his cell phone out of the pocket of his letterman's jacket to check the time. _3:15._

Football practice started at 4, and his work started at 6. Knowing Ms. Oldbag probably knew all of this and put his name at the bottom of the list, he looked around the backstage area to try and find all of the people auditioning for the lead role. It was Juan, himself, Chris, and 2 other kids who he didn't know.

A few seconds after he had seen his competition, Juan came through the curtain. "Did you see that, Engarde? Is your stomach queasy with worry and intimidation?"

Matt just looked at him. _Is this seriously what he's going to throw at me to try and get under my skin? _"Yeahh, my stomach's feeling sick, but not because of being worried or intimidated, that's for sure."

Juan just laughed. "Don't lose your lunch on the stage, amigo." He walked away, and Matt mumbled under his breath "Idiot."

He heard Oldbag yell out the next auditioners name. "CHRIS GREY!" Matt turned to see Chris' knees begininning to buckle. He tried to encourage him. "Knock 'em dead, dude." Chris was still sweating as Matt guided him through the curtain with his hand. Matt peeked out the curtain to watch his performance.

He wasn't a bad actor by no means, but it was obvious this role wasn't suited for him; Matt always thought him to be more of a Shakespearen actor. Chris finished up his audition and the other 2 actors tried out before it was Matt's turn.

He was by himself in the backstage area. Oldbag grumbled his name, she didn't yell it. "Matt Engarde." He took of his letterman's jacket and left it in the back; he had a grey t-shirt on that had "LB High Football" in white lettering on it. He wore blue jeans with a white belt with matching white Nike tennis shoes. He jogged his way out on the stage and saw Juan sitting in the stands, and gave him a sarcastic wave.

He started performing, and all of the judges, barring Ms. Oldbag, were enamoured with his performance. Once he was finished, a couple of the judges started clapping for him. Juan was clearly angry at this.

He ran up onto the stage, beet red, and started yelling "How do you clap for his performance and not mine!? Mine was much better!"

Matt just crossed his arms and sighed; "No. No it wasn't."

A smirk came over Juan's face. "Did you smart-off to your madre like that, amigo? If so, it's no wonder why she killed herself."

Matt's left hand clinched into a fist (he always avoided using his right arm for anything as much as possible, and he was fairly ambidextrous.) Juan's insults had never once hurt him like that, they only had annoyed him like a fly buzzing in his ear. A wave of relief came over him, and he unclinched his left fist.

_BAM! _That didn't stop him from hitting Juan with his right fist, however.

They began throwing punches at each other all over the stage; Matt was clearly winning the fight until a couple of the teachers pulled him off of Juan and sent them both to the office.

While they were sitting in the office, Ms. Oldbag came into the office, huffing and puffing as if she just had an asthma attack. The principal walked out. He was a large man with a brown suit on. He had very few hairs on top of his head and a double chin.

"Mr. Rastly! This boy brutally attacked Juany over here!" The principal slowly looked at both of them. "It looks like they both attacked each other."

"NO! Juany is INNOCENT! INNOCENT I TELL YOU!" Oldbag's eyes had turned a solid white.

The principal remained calm. "Ms. Oldbag, I request that you remain calm. I'm just going to go bar both of these boys from the fall play and go on. The all-you-can-eat asian-american buffet's special half off closes in 20 minutes, so I must be going..."

Oldbag was not happy with this. "Wait! WAIT!"

The principal waved as he walked out the door. Matt just let out a sigh of dissappointment while Juan just sat in his chair, arms crossed, looking at the ceiling. _Dammit..._

Matt had missed football practice that day, too, because of the fight and the time spent in the office. He made his way home to change into his work outfit. He walked into his house to find his dad cooking eggs for dinner; everything his dad cooked for them was particularly greasy, and a good 90% of the time it was eggs. "Hey, Matt." His dad was a short, stout man who already had grey hair on his head and often wore shorts and sandals with every outfit he owned.

"Hey, dad." He threw his letterman's jacket on his recliner; when they had to downsize to this house, they sold the sofa and the loveseat from their old house and bought a recliner for each of them. The walls didn't have a single drop of paint on them; on top of the dark brown wooden walls set all of his dad's fishing memoribilia. He went into his room to change into his work polo; he had to work at a gas station in order to help his dad pay the rent. His dad didn't have any experience in anything other than fishing, and he couldn't make a living in that, so he had to take a part time job as a fry cook, his shift ending everyday at 5.

"Hey, Matt..." When his dad said something in that tone, Matt knew he had two things to say that no other father would tell his son. "I heard you got into a fight at school today..." He smiled; "Did you kick his ass?"

Matt just let a small smile grow over his face. "Of course." He looked at the chicken-shaped clock in the kitchen. _5:34. _His shift at the Jiffy Mart started at 6. His dad put two greasy eggs, smothered in pepper, on a paper plate and set it in front of his son at the bar were they ate dinner. " 'Atta boy. And one more thing..." Matt knew what he was going to say. "Tonight's not a night to bring Princess over, ok? It's my night tonight." His dad called Celeste "Princess" in a derogatory way, but more importantly, he knew that meant his dad was going to bring some girls over that night. They had a 'buddy-buddy' relationship more than a 'father-son', but Matt knew his dad did truly care for him, even though they openly discussed their sexual ventures together; Matt felt inadequate because his own dad got more women than he did, but of course, he had only ever slept with Celeste. He wolfed down his eggs and threw away the plate, and made his way to the garage to see his most prized possession. "Later, dad." "Later, Matt."

He opened the garage door to see his baby, his motorcycle, sitting there, all alone in the unpainted garage. The wood in the garage was more of a light brown and you could see the chalklines the workers had drew when they were constructing the house on the walls; Matt never noticed these things, though, he only noticed his bike. He only had his learner's permit, but he was due to get his license next week, and he couldn't wait. He was going to ride it to school everyday, and show it to everyone; maybe when he dumped Celeste and got a new girlfriend he could take her for rides along the beachfront when the sun was setting. He just let out a sigh and started his walk to work, wishing he could drive his bike there.


	5. The Andrews Household: TVs on Mute

CHAPTER 5

_A few hours earlier..._

Adrian rode her boke home from school, completely and utterly alone. She usually rode her bike him with Chris walking by her side, but tryouts for the fall play prevented this from happening today. She took detours everyday on her ride home, whether with or without Chris, because she hated being seen riding her bike everywhere when all the other kids her age drove themselves places, and she had yet to even get her permit.

After about 10 minutes, she found herself pulling her bike into the garage of her house. She set it against the wall and made her way into her house through the garage door.

Her house was dark; the only light inside the house itself was the blue one coming from the tv in the living room, where her dad sat in silence watching infomercials on mute. She made her way past him and found herself in the kitchen, where her mom was washing dishes. She did this around 7 or 8 times a day, but was more approachable then her father was since the accident 6 months ago.

She opened the fridge and pulled out a key-lime pie flavored yogurt and grabbed a plastic spoon. She took her rubber bands off and began eating her usual after school snack. When she was done, she popped her rubber bands back on and tried building up the courage to speak to her mom. "H-Hey, mom?"

Her mother turned away from the sink, causing the sun to shine on a pale woman with glasses, who wore no make up and had had her blonde hair up in a ponytail for the past 6 months now. People had always told Adrian she had taken after her mother's looks; Dylan had taken after their father, with dark brown hair and a pale-tan skin tone, and 20/20 vision. Adrian was a year older than Dylan was, but you couldn't tell that just by looking at them; they looked to be the exact same age, because they were both the exact same height.

"I'm going to Chris' today when he's done auditioning for the school play, o-ok?"

Mrs. Andrews just lightly nodded in reply, and after that Adrian got up and went into her bedroom until Chris called her on the phone to tell her he was done. She hated being in her house; it was always quiet, and her mom just washed dishes that were already clean or cooked bland meals while her dad just sat in his recliner and watched a silent tv, occasionally having alcohol-fueled outbursts because there was too much noise. Neither had to work any longer; her mother was always a stay at home mom while her dad owned a chain of hardware stores in the Long Beach area, and after the accident he hired a person to do his job and he maintained his stream of income, occassionally making appearances for _Andrews Appliances _commercials.

She opened the door to her room and turned the light on, making her way over to her bed to lay down. She grabbed the remote that lay beside a picture of her and her sister before the accident, smiling on a hiking trip the family had taken together during the summer when Adrian was 14 and Dylan was 13. Their parents went on 2 small-scaled trips during the summer, allowing each of the girls to pick the place where they all went. Adrian had always chosen things like amusement parks or zoos, but Dylan had always wanted to go hiking or camping. Adrian smiled at the recollection of her sister's love for the outdoors before pressing the power button on her tv remote to turn on some cartoons. She flipped through the channels until she came across Boomerang, which used to only show cartoons from when her parents were kids; but this was 2012. It pretty much only showed the cartoons from when she was a kid.

The Powerpuff Girls were on; she remembered she had always wanted to be Blossom, and Dylan had always wanted to be Buttercup. They even dressed up like the two of them for Halloween one year when they were little. She changed the channel before the show could drudge up any more memories, but nothing was on, so she took a small nap.

She woke up to the sound of Poker Face, finding her cat, Puppy (she was very little when she named her.) laying on the bed beside her. She picked up her phone as she sat up in bed with a strech. "...Hello?"

Chris was ecstatic on the other side of the telephone line; "Adrian! I got the part! ...although it's only because Matt and Juan got into a fistfight during audtions and were barred from being in the play..." _Figures. Those idiots, with their stupid male pride. _

"Anyway, Mindy is already over here, and her and Caleb are ready to play D&D. Can you pick up some snacks on the way over here? We're all out."

Adrian just nodded over the phone as she grabbed her purse. "Adrian, hello?"

"I said yes, Chris." She wasn't ever in a good mood right after she woke up, but she didn't realize that she had nodded her answer to him although he had no way of knowing she did so.

"Ok, I guess I didn't hear you. I'll see you in a little bit, ok?"

"Ok, Chris. See you in a bit." She hung up her phone and ran out towards the garage doorway, and opened it and stood there calling out to her parents; "Mom? Dad? I'm going now." They didn't answer (they never did) and she just left.

She road her bike down the beachline; the sun was just begininning to set over the waters; the sky was pink and looked as if it were a watercolor painting. She rode stopped pedaling and let the bike roll on it's own as she glance towards the vast open waters with the yellow sand in front of it; it was as if she were inside of a painting that was hung in museum.

Her moment of solace came to a close when she pulled up to the Jiffy Mart. She propped her bike up beside the entrance of the small gas station and walked in to the sound of the bell. "Hey, Adrian!" A surfer like voice greeted her as she walked through the door. _Ughh...Engarde._

"Hey..." She said, wanting to avoid conversation with him; especially after what had happened that morning. He had been sitting on the counter, but hopped off in an instant in order to greet her. He walked through the small gate separating the area from behind the counter to speak face to face with her, but she just tried walking off to where they had the chips and sodas. "Hey, wait up." _Ughh._

She stopped in front of the potato chips and the 12 pack boxes of soda as he jogged up to her side; it was starting to get dark out, and she didn't really want to be late to meeting up with Chris, Mindy, and Caleb. "So...about this morning..."

"What about it!?" She snapped. His eyes widened. "Whoa, I didn't know it was that bad..." He took a step back. "I just wanted to apologize, that's all...I hope you can see I really didn't mean anything bad by it."

She looked angry; "Well, bad came of it, wouldn't you think." He looked humilated. "Yeahhh...I guess it did, huh?" He perked back up. "Well, I just thought I could make it up to you some how. It's about time for my break and I was thinking that..."

She turned red with anger; "Matt Engarde! I know what you're thinking, and the answer is no!" He just playfully grinned. "So...you don't want help carrying those groceries home? I just thought it'd be a little bit difficult because of your bike and all..."

The redness in her face went from an angry red to an embarrassed red. "O-oh...yeah, I guess that's fine...but I'm going to Chris' house...so..."

He smiled. "That's fine, I could just carry them to his house. So, you got what you want?"

She had turned from strong and filled with hatred to sheepish and meek by this point. "Y-Yeah, I do." They walked over to register together.

Adrian began looking over the different kinds of cigarrettes and lottery tickets behind the counter. "S-so...do you sell people cigarettes?" _Stupid, stupid, urghh! Why is that the question you'd use to start a conversation?_

He was looking down to scan her items. "No, I'm too young. If someone tries to buy cigarettes while I'm at the register, state law says that I have to get an adult to make the transaction." He looked up with a smile. "That'll be $7.42." She pulled her money out of her purse and gently placed it in his hand.

He grabbed the bags he had placed her snacks in and walked out from behind the gate. "So, are you ready?"

She hadn't been paying attention. "O-Oh! Yes. Yes I am. Let's go. With that, she rushed out the door in an attempt to hide her embarrassment from him and hopped on her bike. _Why is being around him doing this to me?_

She slowed her bike down to a walking pace and rode beside him as he carried the groceries; it was almost nighttime outside. It was...7 o'clock? Adrian couldn't remember.

"So..Adrian...I heard Chris got the lead role in the play?" She looked over at him, but it was too dark out to get a clear reading of his facial expression. "Y-Yes, he did. And I heard why you didn't." She said in a snotty, not wanting to make conversation tone. "Oh...well, you see...he said some things he shouldn't have...about my mom..." She heard his voice sound troubled.

She tried not to seem like she cared too much. "...What happened to your mom?"

He sounded surprised. "You don't know? It was all over the tabloids last year. She...had a short stop and a sudden drop, if you catch my drift..." His voice had trailed off by the end of the sentence.

Adrian felt bad; _He's actually a nice guy...and I was so mean to him..._

He picked his tone back up. "So, this is where Chris lives, isn't it?"

She was lost in thought once more and was caught off guard by his question. "H-Huh? Oh, yeahh." She dropped her bike in the front yard of the large brick home and took the snacks from his hands. Just as she started to turn towards the door, she heard Matt speak up.

"...Hey, Adrian?"

She turned to face him. "Yeah?"

He came in all of a sudden, and planted a kiss on her lips. Half of her told her to resist, but the other half gave in. The moment had been just right, and she didn't just allow him to kiss her; _She liked it._

She pulled away with a gasp after a bit; she could feel the blood rushing to her face as she smiled; "O-oh...um...I'll...I'll be seeing you around, ok?"

"Ok. See you Monday."

With that, she ran inside Chris' house and closed the door behind her, setting the bag of chips down on the floor so she could touch her lips with her hand. She hadn't felt this happy in over 6 months...

* * *

**AUTHOR'S NOTE: A thanks to supersexyghotmew95 for giving me the name Dylan after one of her Pokemon. Oh, and please review, dudes! I appreciate any and all feedback you can give me.**


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